"The Walking Dead" brought back a friendly familiar face in its Season 4 finale, "A." Scott Wilson, who played the late, great Hershel Greene, reprised his role eight episodes after the Governor chopped off his head in the midseason finale.

"I think we just wanted to show Rick's whole story, Rick's entire journey. That was actually the beginning of Rick's move away from brutality," showrunner Scott Gimple says of the flashback to Hershel on
"Talking Dead." "That was a different world. They were breaking ground on that new world, but that world is over."

He continues of Wilson, "It was wonderful to have him back, and to close out the story."

In a quote from Greg Nicotero, the co-executive producer says that it was like nothing changed on "The Walking Dead" when Wilson came back. "All the actors were happy to be back after being separated," he says.

"That man's a legend," Andrew Lincoln recalls of shooting again with Scott Wilson. But apparently having Hershel back for the two-day shoot wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. "He was just burping," Lincoln says. "I could just hear him belching all over my lines."

"The Walking Dead" Season 5 returns to AMC in October 2014. Did you like the Hershel flashback?